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that I would begin reading on my own a book, and I did: "Reckless Endangerment: How Outsized Ambition, Greed, and Corruption Led to Economic Armageddon." It's by Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner (he might pronounce it Rose-ner), and Gretchen is a business writer for the New York Times. I have to confess, before I knew anything of the book or knew anything of the contents of the book, simply because she was at the New York Times I figured it was going to have an obviously left-wing slant to it. I read a review of the book to you yesterday by Walter Russell Mead, well-known historian, that was sent around by the noted Democrat pollster Pat Caddell. The review of Mr. Reid's was this book is a "weapon of mass destruction" for Republican presidential candidates and operatives.

Because it is a credible indictment of the Democrat Party, Democrat leaders and the Democrat Party's alliance with Wall Street leaders in creating -- by virtue of policy -- the entire crisis that has led to the present state of the economy, that it can be laid at the feet of Democrats exclusively. Now, in terms of its origins -- origins, by the way, which go back to 1992 and Bill Clinton. Now, in the ensuing years, there have been Republicans that have come along and have allowed such things as subprime crisis and all to go on. There were other Republicans that tried to regulate against it and stop it. So it's not entirely laid at the feet of Democrats, but its origins are. It's a devastating book. I've now started hunting and pecking my way through it.

I solidly read through Chapter 4 and then in the interests of time and economy (and my book report for today) started scanning other parts of the book, and it's amazing. It is everything that our instincts told us about this crisis, from subprime to the "social justice" nature of extending loans for houses to people who had no way of paying them back, done on purpose as a matter of policy to secure votes and to also create revenue streams for most-favored participants. The names are legion and they are mentioned throughout this book, and you know them all -- except maybe for one: James Johnson. James Johnson is the villain. This book answers the question: "What happened to our economy?" The American people know that they've been robbed.